All posts by Michelle

Great video that is about 1 1/2 hours long by the author of “Good Calories, Bad Calories” about the low fat myth of good health, the real underlying causes of obesity, and how Americans were hoodwinked by the Keyes study regarding fat causing heart disease.

A human being should be able to change a diaper, plan an invasion, butcher a hog, conn a ship, design a building, write a sonnet, balance accounts, build a wall, set a bone, comfort the dying, take orders, give orders, cooperate, act alone, solve equations, analyze a new problem, pitch manure, program a computer, cook a tasty meal, fight efficiently, die gallantly. Specialization is for insects.

For years now, critics have been speaking of modern industrial agriculture as “unsustainable” in precisely these terms, though what form the “breakdown” might take or when it might happen has never been certain. Would the aquifers run dry? The pesticides stop working? The soil loses its fertility? All these breakdowns have been predicted and they may yet come to pass. But if a system is unsustainable — if its workings offend the rules of nature — the cracks and signs of breakdown may show up in the most unexpected times and places. Two stories in the news this year, stories that on their faces would seem to have nothing to do with each other let alone with agriculture, may point to an imminent breakdown in the way we’re growing food today.

First grate your soap; I just use a bowl and a big-holed cheese grater.

Get out your BIG stockpot and add 1 gallon (16 cups) of water. I use an old 1 gallon vinegar bottle to measure out the water. Bring the water to a boil and then add the grated soap.

Stir until the soap dissolves and remove from heat. If you’re using Ivory you will have lots of suds….if you’re using Zote Soap there will be less suds.

Get out a 5 gallon bucket and pour the soap/water mixture into your bucket. Add the 2 cups of baking soda OR 1 cup baking soda/1 cup borax and stir until dissolved. If you are using the Ivory Soap it may suds up a lot.

Once you’ve got your soap mixture in your bucket, add 2 more gallons of cold water and stir.

As the laundry detergent cools, it will eventually “gel-up” (this can take up to 48 hours). To help it cool faster and not separate when it does Gel-up, it’s best to stir it every once in awhile. (Don’t worry, the suds eventually go away).